Notes: Originally posted on LJ, Dec. 2006.

Archive: NO.

Small Things

By Miki

It was just something small that started it all.

At first it was bumping into him at a café – something unexpected, but from the look on Inui's face, not entirely unwelcome after all…

They had been leaving to see a movie when Inui stepped out of the shop's doorway and into the afternoon heat, and into Yanagi Renji.

Kaidou had bumped into Inui's back and hissed, annoyed at Inui and about to ask him what was up, when he realised Inui was strangely silent.

"Sadaharu."

"Renji."

And Kaidou felt that twinge of hot jealousy worming itself through his veins.

"Hurry up, Inui-senpai; we're going to miss the start," Kaidou hissed, and almost grasped Inui's arm.

He didn't though, because Yanagi Renji was watching, and something told Kaidou that it wasn't the right time for things like that.

(S)

Kaidou knew little things could snowball.

When the phone rang and he picked it up only to hear a familiar, unwelcome voice on the other end, he slammed it back down and then hissed.

He turned around quickly, rubbing at his arm and wondering why he was so immature as to hang up on someone.

Then he stalked into his room – or was it… their room? – and shut himself in there.

When Inui returned from his afternoon lecture and opened the door, he found Kaidou glaring back at him; folder of notes grasped tightly in one hand.

Kaidou didn't put down the folder until Inui was already asleep after midnight, and in the morning when Inui left to go to a morning lecture, Kaidou already had his nose buried in work again.

(S)

Inui had reflected often that perhaps the greatest source of their problems was a lack of communication.

Certainly, one could gleam insights into Kaidou's emotions purely through his body language, and over the years, Inui had learnt that little things like flicks of the wrist, hisses and the way Kaidou squeezed his eyes closed were just the surface of things.

But words were another thing entirely.

So when he picked up the phone on a Thursday night and nearly dropped it when he found Yanagi Renji on the other end, it took him a second to figure out that the sudden beeping from the speaker was not because Yanagi had hung up on him, but because Kaidou had pulled the phone plug out.

(S)

Kaidou liked cute things.

Kittens, cats, puppies, dogs with floppy ears and fluffy, shiny coats and teddy bears all fell into that category.

Even though small pets were allowed in the complex where he and Inui shared an apartment and occasionally a bed, he kept a stuffed toy instead.

It was one Inui had given him upon discovering Kaidou staring at it through a shop window one day.

He'd been late to meet him, and Kaidou had been angry and hissed at him until Inui had gone into the shop, asked the shop assistant for the toy from the window display and walked back out with it in a large blue paper bag decorated with stars.

He'd never told Kaidou, but the look on Kaidou's face when he'd seen the toy disappear from the window in front of him had been almost funny.

Inui suspected he was lamenting the fact that someone else had bought the thing when he opened the bag from Inui and found it staring back at him.

After that, Inui had been partially forgiven… But not before Kaidou had scowled at him for doing something so embarrassing.

What did Inui think he was, a girl?

As Kaidou stared up at the ceiling, back resting against the softness of the bed and his head on his pillow, he reflected on the fact that stuffed toys were overrated.

His chest felt kind of tight when he looked across at the toy, placed strategically on the other side of the bed… where Inui might be… if Kaidou hadn't told him not to disturb him because he was studying and to go away and leave him alone.

He had never told Inui straight out, but he did really like the stupid toy.

It was just that…

The other thing he'd never said was that he actually liked Inui a lot more.

(S)

Snowballs, of course, must inevitably end their downhill runs by hitting something.

When Inui finally refused to accept Kaidou's words, and instead pushed the door open so hard it slammed into the wall and the handle left a dent, both of them were surprised.

Inui looked a little sheepish, because he hadn't meant to push the door quite so hard.

Kaidou swallowed and couldn't help the slight look of fear that crossed his face, because it had been a long time since he'd seen that look in Inui's eyes, and he was starting to wonder if perhaps he deserved it.

(S)

Kaidou had always been somewhat weak to Inui's voice, so it wasn't hard for the older boy to coax things slowly out of Kaidou.

Using the tone of voice he knew he'd often used with Kaidou back at Seigaku had helped too, Inui knew.

It was almost something of a conditioned response now, though it didn't always work straight away.

Sometime between trying to push Inui away with his forearm, and nearly losing his balance, Kaidou ended up pinned flat on his back on the floor, and Inui ended up on top of him.

Inui's glasses were knocked off his face and his lip bled a bit, but it wasn't the blood so much as the bright green of Inui's eyes that shocked Kaidou.

He'd forgotten how achingly honest Inui's face could look sometimes, and then, before things could get worse, Inui managed to tease the story out of him; bit by bit.

(S)

Had Kaidou ever asked him – and he never did – Inui would have told him that he didn't care one bit about the blood that dripped down from his lip and soaked into his shirt.

What he cared about was the fact that Kaidou's face showed how horrible he felt about it, and that he reached up to pull Inui down to kiss it better.

So they could both kiss each other better.

(S)

It wasn't until a few days later that Kaidou realised there was something different about the way Yanagi Renji and Inui acted around each other.

The edge in their voices was still there, and they had never lost the competitiveness between them, but between he and Inui, there was something different.

Inui, of course, had learnt his lesson and didn't want to risk things with Kaidou again, even if it had just been a petty thing that had started it all.

And, in the end, there was something to be said about even a smidge of jealousy written on Kaidou's face.

Inui knew he'd never tell Kaidou, but the next time they met Yanagi Renji, it wasn't an accident at all.

And when that look flashed across Kaidou's face again for a tiny fraction of a second…

Inui smiled at his old friend.

"Renji."

"Sadaharu."

And then he slipped his hand into Kaidou's and slipped his fingers in between the other boy's, and led him in the opposite direction.

"The movie should be starting in approximately seven minutes, Kaidou. We shouldn't be late again, should we?"

Kaidou didn't have much to say in response, but the way he squeezed Inui's hand was enough.

It was, after all, all the small things about Kaidou that Inui loved more than anything else.

.fin.